Electric scooter with on-board charging system

Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – One cell or battery charges another – Vehicle battery charging

Reexamination Certificate

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Reexamination Certificate

active

06326765

ABSTRACT:

RELATED APPLICATIONS
NONE
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to electric scooters in which an on-board charging system is provided to recharge the batteries.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electric scooters are well known in the prior art. Typically electric scooters have a bank of batteries which provide power to drive the motor. These batteries must be recharged from time to time. This is typically done by plugging the batteries into an AC power outlet for some period of time to restore the depleted energy. Recharging circuits for electrical scooters, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,996, have been developed for the purpose of uniformly charging batteries. In the aforementioned '996 patent a total of ten 12 volt batteries are provided on the scooter. Due to the weight and volume of so many batteries, scooters may need to develop special frames or the like to support this added weight and volume. U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,768 is directed to a scooter frame which can accommodate ten such 12-volt batteries.
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in placing battery recharging units and battery energy conserving units permanently onboard electric vehicles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,532 entitled “Fuel cell/battery hybrid power system for vehicle” exemplifies the use of a fuel cell to recharge a battery in an electric vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,426 discloses the use of regenerative braking to returning energy by back-driving the motor mechanism. However, neither of these references disclose such device in conjunction with an electric scooter.
What is desirable is an electric scooter which has an onboard charging system that recharges batteries, the batteries being used as the principal power source to propel the scooter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is realized by a two-wheeled electric scooter having a frame sufficient to accommodate batteries which collectively provide the capacity to propel the scooter at accelerations and velocities comparable to that of general traffic flow. In addition to a frame and batteries, the electric scooter of the present invention includes an electric motor, an onboard recharging source for recharging the batteries, an interface to an external power source for rapid recharging of the batteries and control and monitoring mechanisms to help regulate battery consumption and restoration.
In one aspect of the invention, the recharging source is a fuel cell which provides a trickle charge to the batteries through a DC-DC converter. Either methanol or hydrogen may be used as the fuel to drive the fuel cell as appropriate.
In another aspect of the invention, the charging source is an internal combustion engine using either gasoline, diesel or other fuel, which charges the batteries via a mechanical charging unit such as an alternator or generator.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, regenerative braking circuit is supplied which charges the batteries with energy harnessed during deceleration.


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